Message compression in scalable messaging system

ABSTRACT

Methods, systems, and apparatus, including computer programs encoded on a computer storage medium, for receiving from a plurality of publisher clients a plurality of messages, each message being for a particular channel of a plurality of distinct channels wherein each channel comprises an ordered plurality of messages, encoding each message based on a particular dictionary, storing encoded messages in one or more respective buffers according to the order, each buffer having a respective time-to-live and residing on a respective node, retrieving encoded messages for the particular channel from respective buffers having time-to-lives that have not expired and according to the order, decoding each retrieved message based on the particular dictionary, and sending the decoded messages to a plurality of subscriber clients.

BACKGROUND

This specification relates to a data communication system and, inparticular, a system that implements message compression in messagechannels.

The publish-subscribe pattern (or “PubSub”) is a data communicationmessaging arrangement implemented by software systems where so-calledpublishers publish messages to topics and so-called subscribers receivethe messages pertaining to particular topics to which they aresubscribed. There can be one or more publishers per topic and publishersgenerally have no knowledge of what subscribers, if any, will receivethe published messages. Some PubSub systems do not cache messages orhave small caches meaning that subscribers may not receive messages thatwere published before the time of subscription to a particular topic.PubSub systems can be susceptible to performance instability duringsurges of message publications or as the number of subscribers to aparticular topic increases.

SUMMARY

In general, one aspect of the subject matter described in thisspecification can be embodied in methods that include the actions ofreceiving from a plurality of publisher clients a plurality of messages,each message being for a particular channel of a plurality of distinctchannels wherein each channel comprises an ordered plurality ofmessages, encoding each message based on a particular dictionary,storing encoded messages in one or more respective buffers according tothe order, each buffer having a respective time-to-live and residing ona respective node, retrieving encoded messages for the particularchannel from respective buffers having time-to-lives that have notexpired and according to the order, decoding each retrieved messagebased on the particular dictionary, and sending the decoded messages toa plurality of subscriber clients. Other embodiments of this aspectinclude corresponding systems, apparatus, and computer programs.

These and other aspects can optionally include one or more of thefollowing features. The particular dictionary can comprise one or morepatterns that can be shared by at least some of the plurality ofmessages for the particular channel. A particular pattern can comprise atext string. A particular pattern can correspond to a common data fieldshared by at least some of the plurality of messages for the particularchannel. A particular pattern can comprise a particular data type. Theaspect can further comprise inspecting content of one or more receivedmessages for the particular channel, determining a particular patternshared by the inspected messages, and adding the particular pattern tothe particular dictionary. Encoding a particular message can furthercomprise compressing the particular message according to a particularpattern, and decoding a particular message can further comprisereconstructing the particular message as uncompressed. Compressing theparticular message according to the particular pattern can furthercomprise compressing the particular message with a second message thatis adjacent to the particular message in the order and comprises theparticular pattern. Storing encoded messages in a first buffer residingon a first node can further comprise sending a plurality of encodedmessages to the first node wherein the first node stores the pluralityof encoded messages in a first block of one or more blocks within thefirst buffer wherein each block having a respective time-to-live.Retrieving encoded messages from the first buffer can further compriseretrieving encoded messages in one or more of the blocks havingrespective time-to-lives that have not expired.

Particular embodiments of the subject matter described in thisspecification can be implemented to realize one or more of the followingadvantages. A messaging system provides multiple channels for datacommunication between publishers and subscribers. Each channel of themessaging system comprises an ordered sequence of messages. The messagesare stored in multiple buffers (streamlets) residing on respective queuenodes. Each buffer has a respective time-to-live, e.g., a limited andoften short lifetime. Messages of a channel are provided to subscribersof the channel in the same order as the messages are published andstored in the channel. In addition, messages of a channel are encodedbased on a particular dictionary for the channel before being stored inrespective buffers. The encoded messages are retrieved from respectivebuffers and decoded based on the particular dictionary, before beingprovided to subscribers of the channel. In this way, messages can becompressed before being stored in a buffer, and thus take less memoryspace in the buffer as compared to if the messages are not compressed.

The details of one or more embodiments of the subject matter describedin this specification are set forth in the accompanying drawings and thedescription below. Other features, aspects, and advantages of thesubject matter will become apparent from the description, the drawings,and the claims.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

FIG. 1A illustrates an example system that supports the PubSubcommunication pattern.

FIG. 1B illustrates functional layers of software on an example clientdevice.

FIG. 2 is a diagram of an example messaging system.

FIG. 3A is a data flow diagram of an example method for writing data toa streamlet.

FIG. 3B is a data flow diagram of an example method for reading datafrom a streamlet.

FIG. 4A is a data flow diagram of an example method for publishingmessages to a channel of a messaging system.

FIG. 4B is a data flow diagram of an example method for subscribing to achannel of a messaging system.

FIG. 4C is an example data structure for storing messages of a channelof a messaging system.

FIG. 5 is a data flow diagram of an example method for messagecompression in a messaging system.

FIG. 6 is a flowchart of an example method for message compression in amessaging system.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

FIG. 1A illustrates an example system 100 that supports the PubSubcommunication pattern. Publisher clients (e.g., Publisher 1) can publishmessages to named channels (e.g., “Channel 1”) by way of the system 100.A message can comprise any type of information including one or more ofthe following: text, image content, sound content, multimedia content,video content, binary data, and so on. Other types of message data arepossible. Subscriber clients (e.g., Subscriber 2) can subscribe to anamed channel using the system 100 and start receiving messages whichoccur after the subscription request or from a given position (e.g., amessage number or time offset). A client can be both a publisher and asubscriber.

Depending on the configuration, a PubSub system can be categorized asfollows:

-   -   One to One (1:1). In this configuration there is one publisher        and one subscriber per channel. A typical use case is private        messaging.    -   One to Many (1:N). In this configuration there is one publisher        and multiple subscribers per channel. Typical use cases are        broadcasting messages (e.g., stock prices).    -   Many to Many (M:N). In this configuration there are many        publishers publishing to a single channel. The messages are then        delivered to multiple subscribers. Typical use cases are map        applications.

There is no separate operation needed to create a named channel. Achannel is created implicitly when the channel is subscribed to or whena message is published to the channel. In some implementations, channelnames can be qualified by a name space. A name space comprises one ormore channel names. Different name spaces can have the same channelnames without causing ambiguity. The name space name can be a prefix ofa channel name where the name space and channel name are separated by adot. In some implementations, name spaces can be used when specifyingchannel authorization settings. For instance, the messaging system 100may have app1.foo and app1.system.notifications channels where “app1” isthe name of the name space. The system can allow clients to subscribeand publish to the app1.foo channel. However, clients can only subscribeto, but not publish to the app1.system.notifications channel.

FIG. 1B illustrates functional layers of software on an example clientdevice. A client device (e.g., client 102) is a data processingapparatus such as, for example, a personal computer, a laptop computer,a tablet computer, a smart phone, a smart watch, or a server computer.Other types of client devices are possible. The application layer 104comprises the end-user application(s) that will integrate with thePubSub system 100. The messaging layer 106 is a programmatic interfacefor the application layer 104 to utilize services of the system 100 suchas channel subscription, message publication, message retrieval, userauthentication, and user authorization. In some implementations, themessages passed to and from the messaging layer 106 are encoded asJavaScript Object Notation (JSON) objects. Other message encodingschemes are possible.

The operating system 108 layer comprises the operating system softwareon the client 102. In various implementations, messages can be sent andreceived to/from the system 100 using persistent or non-persistentconnections. Persistent connections can be created using, for example,network sockets. A transport protocol such as TCP/IP layer 112implements the Transport Control Protocol/Internet Protocolcommunication with the system 100 that can be used by the messaginglayer 106 to send messages over connections to the system 100. Othercommunication protocols are possible including, for example, UserDatagram Protocol (UDP). In further implementations, an optionalTransport Layer Security (TLS) layer 110 can be employed to ensure theconfidentiality of the messages.

FIG. 2 is a diagram of an example messaging system 100. The system 100provides functionality for implementing PubSub communication patterns.The system comprises software components and storage that can bedeployed at one or more data centers 122 in one or more geographiclocations, for example. The system comprises MX nodes (e.g., MX nodes ormultiplexer nodes 202, 204 and 206), Q nodes (e.g., Q nodes or queuenodes 208, 210 and 212), one or more channel manager nodes (e.g.,channel managers 214, 215), and optionally one or more C nodes (e.g., Cnodes or cache nodes 220 and 222). Each node can execute in a virtualmachine or on a physical machine (e.g., a data processing apparatus).Each MX node serves as a termination point for one or more publisherand/or subscriber connections through the external network 216. Theinternal communication among MX nodes, Q nodes, C nodes, and the channelmanager, is conducted over an internal network 218, for example. By wayof illustration, MX node 204 can be the terminus of a subscriberconnection from client 102. Each Q node buffers channel data forconsumption by the MX nodes. An ordered sequence of messages publishedto a channel is a logical channel stream. For example, if three clientspublish messages to a given channel, the combined messages published bythe clients comprise a channel stream. Messages can be ordered in achannel stream by time of publication by the client, by time of receiptby an MX node, or by time of receipt by a Q node. Other ways forordering messages in a channel stream are possible. In the case wheremore than one message would be assigned to the same position in theorder, one of the messages can be chosen (e.g., randomly) to have alater sequence in the order. Each channel manager node is responsiblefor managing Q node load by splitting channel streams into so-calledstreamlets. Streamlets are discussed further below. The optional C nodesprovide caching and load removal from the Q nodes.

In the example messaging system 100, one or more client devices(publishers and/or subscribers) establish respective persistentconnections (e.g., TCP connections) to an MX node (e.g., MX node 204).The MX node serves as a termination point for these connections. Forinstance, external messages (e.g., between respective client devices andthe MX node) carried by these connections can be encoded based on anexternal protocol (e.g., JSON). The MX node terminates the externalprotocol and translates the external messages to internal communication,and vice versa. The MX nodes publish and subscribe to streamlets onbehalf of clients. In this way, an MX node can multiplex and mergerequests of client devices subscribing for or publishing to the samechannel, thus representing multiple client devices as one, instead ofone by one.

In the example messaging system 100, a Q node (e.g., Q node 208) canstore one or more streamlets of one or more channel streams. A streamletis a data buffer for a portion of a channel stream. A streamlet willclose to writing when its storage is full. A streamlet will close toreading and writing and be de-allocated when its time-to-live (TTL) hasexpired. By way of illustration, a streamlet can have a maximum size of1 MB and a TTL of three minutes. Different channels can have streamletslimited by different TTLs. For instance, streamlets in one channel canexist for up to three minutes, while streamlets in another channel canexist for up to 10 minutes. In various implementations, a streamletcorresponds to a computing process running on a Q node. The computingprocess can be terminated after the streamlet's TTL has expired, thusfreeing up computing resources (for the streamlet) back to the Q node,for example.

When receiving a publish request from a client device, an MX node (e.g.,MX node 204) makes a request to a channel manager (e.g., channel manager214) to grant access to a streamlet to write the message beingpublished. Note, however, that if the MX node has already been grantedwrite access to a streamlet for the channel (and the channel has notbeen closed to writing), the MX node can write the message to thatstreamlet without having to request a grant to access the streamlet.Once a message is written to a streamlet for a channel, the message canbe read by MX nodes and provided to subscribers of that channel.

Similarly, when receiving a channel subscription request from a clientdevice, an MX node makes a request to a channel manager to grant accessto a streamlet for the channel from which messages are read. If the MXnode has already been granted read access to a streamlet for the channel(and the channel's TTL has not been closed to reading), the MX node canread messages from the streamlet without having to request a grant toaccess the streamlet. The read messages can then be forwarded to clientdevices that have subscribed to the channel. In various implementations,messages read from streamlets are cached by MX nodes so that MX nodescan reduce the number of times needed to read from the streamlets.

By way of illustration, an MX node can request a grant from the channelmanager that allows the MX node to store a block of data into astreamlet on a particular Q node that stores streamlets of theparticular channel. Example streamlet grant request and grant datastructures are as follows:

StreamletGrantRequest = {    ″channel″: string( )    ″mode″: ″read″ |″write″    “position”: 0 } StreamletGrantResponse = {    ″streamlet-id″:″abcdef82734987″,    ″limit-size″: 2000000, # 2 megabytes max   ″limit-msgs″: 5000, # 5 thousand messages max    ″limit-life″: 4000,# the grant is valid for 4 seconds    “q-node”: string( )    “position”:0 }

The StreamletGrantRequest data structure stores the name of the streamchannel and a mode indicating whether the MX node intends on readingfrom or writing to the streamlet. The MX node sends theStreamletGrantRequest to a channel manager node. The channel managernode, in response, sends the MX node a StreamletGrantResponse datastructure. The StreamletGrantResponse contains an identifier of thestreamlet (streamlet-id), the maximum size of the streamlet(limit-size), the maximum number of messages that the streamlet canstore (limit-msgs), the TTL (limit-life), and an identifier of a Q node(q-node) on which the streamlet resides. The StreamletGrantRequest andStreamletGrantResponse can also have a position field that points to aposition in a streamlet (or a position in a channel) for reading fromthe streamlet.

A grant becomes invalid once the streamlet has closed. For example, astreamlet is closed to reading and writing once the streamlet's TTL hasexpired and a streamlet is closed to writing when the streamlet'sstorage is full. When a grant becomes invalid, the MX node can request anew grant from the channel manager to read from or write to a streamlet.The new grant will reference a different streamlet and will refer to thesame or a different Q node depending on where the new streamlet resides.

FIG. 3A is a data flow diagram of an example method for writing data toa streamlet in various embodiments. In FIG. 3A, when an MX node (e.g.,MX node 202) request to write to a streamlet is granted by a channelmanager (e.g., channel manager 214), as described before, the MX nodeestablishes a Transmission Control Protocol (TCP) connection with the Qnode (e.g., Q node 208) identified in the grant response received fromthe channel manager (302). A streamlet can be written concurrently bymultiple write grants (e.g., for messages published by multiplepublisher clients). Other types of connection protocols between the MXnode and the Q node are possible.

The MX node then sends a prepare-publish message with an identifier of astreamlet that the MX node wants to write to the Q node (304). Thestreamlet identifier and Q node identifier can be provided by thechannel manager in the write grant as described earlier. The Q nodehands over the message to a handler process 301 (e.g., a computingprocess running on the Q node) for the identified streamlet (306). Thehandler process can send to the MX node an acknowledgement (308). Afterreceiving the acknowledgement, the MX node starts writing (publishing)messages (e.g., 310, 312, 314, and 318) to the handler process, which inturns stores the received data in the identified streamlet. The handlerprocess can also send acknowledgements (316, 320) to the MX node for thereceived data. In some implementations, acknowledgements can bepiggy-backed or cumulative. For instance, the handler process can sendto the MX node an acknowledgement for every predetermined amount of datareceived (e.g., for every 100 messages received), or for everypredetermined time period (e.g., for every one millisecond). Otheracknowledgement scheduling algorithms, such as Nagle's algorithm, can beused.

If the streamlet can no longer accept published data (e.g., when thestreamlet is full), the handler process sends a Negative-Acknowledgement(NAK) message (330) indicating a problem, following by an EOF(end-of-file) message (332). In this way, the handler process closes theassociation with the MX node for the publish grant. The MX node can thenrequest a write grant for another streamlet from a channel manager ifthe MX node has additional messages to store.

FIG. 3B is a data flow diagram of an example method for reading datafrom a streamlet in various embodiments. In FIG. 3B, an MX node (e.g.,MX node 204) sends to a channel manager (e.g., channel manager 214) arequest for reading a particular channel starting from a particularmessage or time offset in the channel. The channel manager returns tothe MX node a read grant including an identifier of a streamletcontaining the particular message, a position in the streamletcorresponding to the particular message, and an identifier of a Q node(e.g., Q node 208) containing the particular streamlet. The MX node thenestablishes a TCP connection with the Q node (352). Other types ofconnection protocols between the MX node and the Q node are possible.

The MX node then sends to the Q node a subscribe message (354) with theidentifier of the streamlet (in the Q node) and the position in thestreamlet from which the MX node wants to read (356). The Q node handsover the subscribe message to a handler process 351 for the streamlet(356). The handler process can send to the MX node an acknowledgement(358). The handler process then sends messages (360, 364, 366), startingat the position in the streamlet, to the MX node. In someimplementations, the handler process can send all of the messages in thestreamlet to the MX node. After sending the last message in a particularstreamlet, the handler process can send a notification of the lastmessage to the MX node. The MX node can send to the channel manageranother request for another streamlet containing a next message in theparticular channel.

If the particular streamlet is closed (e.g., after its TTL has expired),the handler process can send an unsubscribe message (390), followed byan EOF message (392), to close the association with the MX node for theread grant. The MX node can close the association with the handlerprocess when the MX node moves to another streamlet for messages in theparticular channel (e.g., as instructed by the channel manager). The MXnode can also close the association with the handler process if the MXnode receives an unsubscribe message from a corresponding client device.

In various implementations, a streamlet can be written into and readfrom at the same time instance. For instance, there can be a valid readgrant and a valid write grant at the same time instance. In variousimplementations, a streamlet can be read concurrently by multiple readgrants (e.g., for channels subscribed to by multiple publisher clients).The handler process of the streamlet can order messages from concurrentwrite grants based on, for example, time-of-arrival, and store themessages based on the order. In this way, messages published to achannel from multiple publisher clients can be serialized and stored ina streamlet of the channel.

In the messaging system 100, one or more C nodes (e.g., C node 220) canoffload data transfers from one or more Q nodes. For instance, if thereare many MX nodes requesting streamlets from Q nodes for a particularchannel, the streamlets can be offloaded and cached in one or more Cnodes. The MX nodes (e.g., as instructed by read grants from a channelmanager) can read the streamlets from the C nodes instead.

As described above, messages for a channel in the messaging system 100are ordered in a channel stream. A channel manager (e.g., channelmanager 214) splits the channel stream into fixed-sized streamlets thateach reside on a respective Q node. In this way, storing a channelstream can be shared among many Q nodes; each Q node stores a portion(one or more streamlets) of the channel stream. More particularly, astreamlet can be stored in registers and dynamic memory elementsassociated with a computing process on a Q node, thus avoiding the needto access persistent, slower storage devices such as hard disks. Thisresults in faster message access. The channel manager can also balanceload among Q nodes in the messaging system 100 by monitoring respectiveworkloads of the Q nodes and allocating streamlets in a way that avoidsoverloading any one Q node.

In various implementations, a channel manager maintains a listidentifying each active streamlet, the respective Q node on which thestreamlet resides, an identification of the position of the firstmessage in the streamlet, and whether the streamlet is closed forwriting. In some implementations, Q nodes notify the channel manager andany MX nodes that are publishing to a streamlet that the streamlet isclosed due to being full or when the streamlet's TTL has expired. When astreamlet is closed, the streamlet remains on the channel manager's listof active streamlets until the streamlet's TTL has expired so that MXnodes can continue to retrieve messages from the streamlet.

When an MX node requests a write grant for a given channel and there isnot a streamlet for the channel that can be written to, the channelmanager allocates a new streamlet on one of the Q nodes and returns theidentity of the streamlet and the Q node in the StreamletGrantResponse.Otherwise, the channel manager returns the identity of the currentlyopen for writing streamlet and corresponding Q node in theStreamletGrantResponse. MX nodes can publish messages to the streamletuntil the streamlet is full or the streamlet's TTL has expired, afterwhich a new streamlet can be allocated by the channel manager.

When an MX node requests a read grant for a given channel and there isnot a streamlet for the channel that can be read from, the channelmanager allocates a new streamlet on one of the Q nodes and returns theidentity of the streamlet and the Q node in the StreamletGrantResponse.Otherwise, the channel manager returns the identity of the streamlet andQ node that contains the position from which the MX node wishes to read.The Q node can then begin sending messages to the MX node from thestreamlet beginning at the specified position until there are no moremessages in the streamlet to send. When a new message is published to astreamlet, MX nodes that have subscribed to that streamlet will receivethe new message. If a streamlet's TTL has expired, the handler process351 sends an EOF message (392) to any MX nodes that are subscribed tothe streamlet.

As described earlier in reference to FIG. 2, the messaging system 100can include multiple channel managers (e.g., channel managers 214, 215).Multiple channel managers provide resiliency and prevent single point offailure. For instance, one channel manager can replicate lists ofstreamlets and current grants it maintains to another “slave” channelmanager. As for another example, multiple channel managers cancoordinate operations between them using distributed consensusprotocols, such as Paxos or Raft protocols.

FIG. 4A is a data flow diagram of an example method for publishingmessages to a channel of a messaging system. In FIG. 4A, publishers(e.g., publisher clients 402, 404, 406) publish messages to themessaging system 100 described earlier in reference to FIG. 2. Forinstance, publishers 402 respectively establish connections 411 and sendpublish requests to the MX node 202. Publishers 404 respectivelyestablish connections 413 and send publish requests to the MX node 206.Publishers 406 respectively establish connections 415 and send publishrequests to the MX node 204. Here, the MX nodes can communicate (417)with a channel manager (e.g., channel manager 214) and one or more Qnodes (e.g., Q nodes 212 and 208) in the messaging system 100 via theinternal network 218.

By way of illustration, each publish request (e.g., in JSON key/valuepairs) from a publisher to an MX node includes a channel name and amessage. The MX node (e.g., MX node 202) can assign the message in thepublish request to a distinct channel in the messaging system 100 basedon the channel name (e.g., “foo”) of the publish request. The MX nodecan confirm the assigned channel with the channel manager 214. If thechannel (specified in the subscribe request) does not yet exist in themessaging system 100, the channel manager can create and maintain a newchannel in the messaging system 100. For instance, the channel managercan maintain a new channel by maintaining a list identifying each activestreamlet of the channel's stream, the respective Q node on which thestreamlet resides, and identification of the positions of the first andlast messages in the streamlet as described earlier.

For messages of a particular channel, the MX node can store the messagesin one or more buffers or streamlets in the messaging system 100. Forinstance, the MX node 202 receives from the publishers 402 requests topublish messages M11, M12, M13, and M14 to a channel foo. The MX node206 receives from the publishers 404 requests to publish messages M78and M79 to the channel foo. The MX node 204 receives from the publishers406 requests to publish messages M26, M27, M28, M29, M30, and M31 to thechannel foo.

The MX nodes can identify one or more streamlets for storing messagesfor the channel foo. As described earlier, each MX node can request awrite grant from the channel manager 214 that allows the MX node tostore the messages in a streamlet of the channel foo.

For instance, the MX node 202 receives a grant from the channel manager214 to write messages M11, M12, M13, and M14 to a streamlet 4101 on theQ node 212. The MX node 206 receives a grant from the channel manager214 to write messages M78 and M79 to the streamlet 4101. Here, thestreamlet 4101 is the last one (at the moment) of a sequence ofstreamlets of the channel stream 430 storing messages of the channelfoo. The streamlet 4101 has messages (421) of the channel foo that werepreviously stored in the streamlet 4101, but is still open, i.e., thestreamlet 4101 still has space for storing more messages and thestreamlet's TTL has not expired.

The MX node 202 can arrange the messages for the channel foo based onthe respective time that each message was received by the MX node 202,e.g., M11, M13, M14, M12 (422), and store the received messages asarranged in the streamlet 4101. That is, the MX node 202 receives M11first, followed by M13, M14, and M12. Similarly, the MX node 206 canarrange the messages for the channel foo based on their respective timethat each message was received by the MX node 206, e.g., M78, M79 (423),and store the received messages as arranged in the streamlet 4101.

The MX node 202 (or MX node 206) can store the received messages usingthe method for writing data to a streamlet described earlier inreference to FIG. 3A, for example. In various implementations, the MXnode 202 (or MX node 206) can buffer (e.g., in a local data buffer) thereceived messages for the channel foo and store the received messages ina streamlet for the channel foo (e.g., streamlet 4101) when the bufferedmessages reach a predetermined size (e.g., 100 messages), or when apredetermined time (e.g., 50 milliseconds) has elapsed. That is, the MXnode 202 can store in the streamlet 100 messages at a time or in every50 milliseconds. Other acknowledgement scheduling algorithms, such asNagle's algorithm, can be used.

In various implementations, the Q node 212 (e.g., a handler process)stores the messages of the channel foo in the streamlet 4101 in theorder as arranged by the MX node 202 and MX node 206. The Q node 212stores the messages of the channel foo in the streamlet 4101 in theorder the Q node 212 receives the messages. For instance, assume thatthe Q node 212 receives messages M78 (from the MX node 206) first,followed by messages M11 and M13 (from the MX node 202), M79 (from theMX node 206), and M14 and M12 (from the MX node 202). The Q node 212stores in the streamlet 4101 the messages in the order as received,e.g., M78, M11, M13, M79, M14, and M12, immediately after the messages421 that are already stored in the streamlet 4101. In this way, messagespublished to the channel foo from multiple publishers (e.g., 402, 404)can be serialized in a particular order and stored in the streamlet 4101of the channel foo. Different subscribers that subscribe to the channelfoo will receive messages of the channel foo in the same particularorder, as will be described in more detail in reference to FIG. 4B.

In the example of FIG. 4A, at a time instance after the message M12 wasstored in the streamlet 4101, the MX node 204 requests a grant from thechannel manager 214 to write to the channel foo. The channel manager 214provides the MX node 204 a grant to write messages to the streamlet4101, as the streamlet 4101 is still open for writing. The MX node 204arranges the messages for the channel foo based on the respective timethat each message was received by the MX node 204, e.g., M26, M27, M31,M29, M30, M28 (424), and stores the messages as arranged for the channelfoo.

By way of illustration, assume that the message M26 is stored to thelast available position of the streamlet 4101. As the streamlet 4101 isnow full, the Q node 212 sends to the MX node 204 a NAK message,following by an EOF message, to close the association with the MX node204 for the write grant, as described earlier in reference to FIG. 3A.The MX node 204 then requests another write grant from the channelmanager 214 for additional messages (e.g., M27, M31, and so on) for thechannel foo.

The channel manager 214 can monitor available Q nodes in the messagingsystem 100 for their respective workloads (e.g., how many streamlets areresiding in each Q node). The channel manager 214 can allocate astreamlet for the write request from the MX node 204 such thatoverloading (e.g., too many streamlets or too many read or write grants)can be avoided for any given Q node. For instance, the channel manager214 can identify a least loaded Q node in the messaging system 100 andallocate a new streamlet on the least loaded Q node for write requestsfrom the MX node 204. In the example of FIG. 4A, the channel manager 214allocates a new streamlet 4102 on the Q node 208 and provides a writegrant to the MX node 204 to write messages for the channel foo to thestreamlet 4102. As shown in FIG. 4A, the Q node stores in the streamlet4102 the messages from the MX node 204 in an order as arranged by the MXnode 204: M27, M31, M29, M30, and M28 (assuming that there is no otherconcurrent write grant for the streamlet 4102 at the moment).

When the channel manager 214 allocates a new streamlet (e.g., streamlet4102) for a request for a grant from an MX node (e.g., MX node 204) towrite to a channel (e.g., foo), the channel manager 214 assigns to thestreamlet its TTL, which will expire after TTLs of other streamlets thatare already in the channel's stream. For instance, the channel manager214 can assign to each streamlet of the channel foo's channel stream aTTL of 3 minutes when allocating the streamlet. That is, each streamletwill expire 3 minutes after it is allocated (created) by the channelmanager 214. Since a new streamlet is allocated after a previousstreamlet is closed (e.g., filled entirely or expired), in this way, thechannel foo's channel stream comprises streamlets that each expiressequentially after its previous streamlet expires. For instance, asshown in an example channel stream 430 of the channel foo in FIG. 4A,streamlet 4098 and streamlets before 4098 have expired (as indicated bythe dotted-lined gray-out boxes). Messages stored in these expiredstreamlets are not available for reading for subscribers of the channelfoo. Streamlets 4099, 4100, 4101, and 4102 are still active (notexpired). The streamlets 4099, 4100, and 4101 are closed for writing,but still are available for reading. The streamlet 4102 is available forreading and writing, at the moment when the message M28 was stored inthe streamlet 4102. At a later time, the streamlet 4099 will expire,following by the streamlets 4100, 4101, and so on.

FIG. 4B is a data flow diagram of an example method for subscribing to achannel of a messaging system. In FIG. 4B, a subscriber 480 establishesa connection 462 with an MX node 461 of the messaging system 100.Subscriber 482 establishes a connection 463 with the MX node 461.Subscriber 485 establishes a connection 467 with an MX node 468 of themessaging system 100. Here, the MX nodes 461 and 468 can respectivelycommunicate (464) with the channel manager 214 and one or more Q nodesin the messaging system 100 via the internal network 218.

A subscriber (e.g., subscriber 480) can subscribe to the channel foo ofthe messaging system 100 by establishing a connection (e.g., 462) andsending a request for subscribing to messages of the channel foo to anMX node (e.g., MX node 461). The request (e.g., in JSON key/value pairs)can include a channel name “foo.” When receiving the subscribe request,the MX node 461 can send to the channel manager 214 a request for a readgrant for a streamlet in the channel foo's channel stream.

By way of illustration, assume that at the current moment the channelfoo's channel stream 431 includes active streamlets 4102, 4103, and4104, as shown in FIG. 4B. The streamlets 4102 and 4103 each are full.The streamlet 4104 stores messages of the channel foo, including thelast message (at the current moment) stored at a position 47731.Streamlets 4101 and streamlets before 4101 are invalid, as theirrespective TTLs have expired. Note that the messages M78, M11, M13, M79,M14, M12, and M26 stored in the streamlet 4101, described earlier inreference to FIG. 4A, are no longer available for subscribers of thechannel foo, since the streamlet 4101 is no longer valid, as its TTL hasexpired. As described earlier, each streamlet in the channel foo'schannel stream has a TTL of 3 minutes, thus only messages (as stored instreamlets of the channel foo) that are published to the channel foo(i.e., stored into the channel's streamlets) no earlier than 3 minutesfrom the current time can be available for subscribers of the channelfoo.

The MX node 461 can request a read grant for all available messages inthe channel foo, for example, when the subscriber 480 is a newsubscriber to the channel foo. Based on the request, the channel manager214 provides the MX node 461 a read grant to the streamlet 4102 (on theQ node 208) that is the earliest streamlet in the active streamlets ofthe channel foo (i.e., the first in the sequence of the activestreamlets). The MX node 461 can retrieve messages in the streamlet 4102from the Q node 208, using the method for reading data from a streamletdescribed earlier in reference to FIG. 3B, for example. Note that themessages retrieved from the streamlet 4102 maintain the same order asstored in the streamlet 4102. In various implementations, when providingmessages stored in the streamlet 4102 to the MX node 461, the Q node 208can buffer (e.g., in a local data buffer) the messages and send themessages to the MX node 461 when the buffer messages reach apredetermined size (e.g., 200 messages) or a predetermined time (e.g.,50 milliseconds) has elapsed. That is, the Q node 208 can send thechannel foo's messages (from the streamlet 4102) to the MX node 461 200messages at a time or in every 50 milliseconds. Other acknowledgementscheduling algorithms, such as Nagle's algorithm, can be used.

After receiving the last message in the streamlet 4102, the MX node 461can send an acknowledgement to the Q node 208, and send to the channelmanager 214 another request (e.g., for a read grant) for the nextstreamlet in the channel stream of the channel foo. Based on therequest, the channel manager 214 provides the MX node 461 a read grantto the streamlet 4103 (on Q node 472) that logically follows thestreamlet 4102 in the sequence of active streamlets of the channel foo.The MX node 461 can retrieve messages stored in the streamlet 4103,e.g., using the method for reading data from a streamlet describedearlier in reference to FIG. 3B, until it retrieves the last messagestored in the streamlet 4103. The MX node 461 can send to the channelmanager 214 yet another request for a read grant for messages in thenext streamlet 4104 (on Q node 474). After receiving the read grant, theMX node 461 retrieves message of the channel foo stored in the streamlet4104, until the last message at the position 47731. Similarly, the MXnode 468 can retrieve messages from the streamlets 4102, 4103, and 4104(as shown with dotted arrows in FIG. 4B), and provide the messages tothe subscriber 485.

The MX node 461 can send the retrieved messages of the channel foo tothe subscriber 480 (via the connection 462) while receiving the messagesfrom the Q node 208, 472, or 474. In various implementations, the MXnode 461 can store the retrieved messages in a local buffer. In thisway, the retrieved messages can be provided to another subscriber (e.g.,subscriber 482) when the other subscriber subscribes to the channel fooand requests the channel's messages. The MX node 461 can remove messagesstored in the local buffer that each has a time of publication that hasexceeded a predetermined time period. For instance, the MX node 461 canremove messages (stored in the local buffer) with respective times ofpublication exceeding 3 minutes. In some implementations, thepredetermined time period for keeping messages in the local buffer on MXnode 461 can be the same as or similar to the time-to-live duration of astreamlet in the channel foo's channel stream, since at a given moment,messages retrieved from the channel's stream do not include those instreamlets having respective time-to-lives that had already expired.

The messages retrieved from the channel stream 431 and sent to thesubscriber 480 (by the MX node 461) are arranged in the same order asthe messages were stored in the channel stream. For instance, messagespublished to the channel foo are serialized and stored in the streamlet4102 in a particular order (e.g., M27, M31, M29, M30, and so on), thenstored subsequently in the streamlet 4103 and the streamlet 4104. The MXnode retrieves messages from the channel stream 431 and provides theretrieved messages to the subscriber 480 in the same order as themessages are stored in the channel stream: M27, M31, M29, M30, and soon, followed by ordered messages in the streamlet 4103, and followed byordered messages in the streamlet 4104.

Instead of retrieving all available messages in the channel stream 431,the MX node 461 can request a read grant for messages stored in thechannel stream 431 starting from a message at particular position, e.g.,position 47202. For instance, the position 47202 can correspond to anearlier time instance (e.g., 10 seconds before the current time) whenthe subscriber 480 was last subscribing to the channel foo (e.g., via aconnection to the MX node 461 or another MX node of the messaging system100). The MX node 461 can send to the channel manager 214 a request fora read grant for messages starting at the position 47202. Based on therequest, the channel manager 214 provides the MX node 461 a read grantto the streamlet 4104 (on the Q node 474) and a position on thestreamlet 4104 that corresponds to the channel stream position 47202.The MX node 461 can retrieve messages in the streamlet 4104 startingfrom the provided position, and send the retrieved messages to thesubscriber 480.

As described above in reference to FIGS. 4A and 4B, messages publishedto the channel foo are serialized and stored in the channel's streamletsin a particular order. The channel manager 214 maintains the orderedsequence of streamlets as they are created throughout their respectivetime-to-lives. Messages retrieved from the streamlets by an MX node(e.g., MX node 461, or MX node 468) and provided to a subscriber can be,in some implementations, in the same order as the messages are stored inthe ordered sequence of streamlets. In this way, messages sent todifferent subscribers (e.g., subscriber 480, subscriber 482, orsubscriber 485) can be in the same order (as the messages are stored inthe streamlets), regardless which MX nodes the subscribers are connectedto.

In various implementations, a streamlet stores messages in a set ofblocks of messages. Each block stores a number of messages. Forinstance, a block can store two hundred kilobytes of messages. Eachblock has its own time-to-live, which can be shorter than thetime-to-live of the streamlet holding the block. Once a block's TTL hasexpired, the block can be discarded from the streamlet holding theblock, as described in more detail below in reference to FIG. 4C.

FIG. 4C is an example data structure for storing messages of a channelof a messaging system. As described with the channel foo in reference toFIGS. 4A and 4B, assume that at the current moment the channel foo'schannel stream 432 includes active streamlets 4104 and 4105, as shown inFIG. 4C. Streamlet 4103 and streamlets before 4103 are invalid, as theirrespective TTLs have expired. The streamlet 4104 is already full for itscapacity (e.g., as determined by a corresponding write grant) and isclosed for additional message writes. The streamlet 4104 is stillavailable for message reads. The streamlet 4105 is open and is availablefor message writes and reads.

By way of illustration, the streamlet 4104 (e.g., a computing processrunning on the Q node 474 shown in FIG. 4B) currently holds two blocksof messages. Block 494 holds messages from channel positions 47301 to47850. Block 495 holds messages from channel positions 47851 to 48000.The streamlet 4105 (e.g., a computing process running on another Q nodein the messaging system 100) currently holds two blocks of messages.Block 496 holds messages from channel positions 48001 to 48200. Block497 holds messages starting from channel position 48201, and stillaccepts additional messages of the channel foo.

When the streamlet 4104 was created (e.g., by a write grant), a firstblock (sub-buffer) 492 was created to store messages, e.g., from channelpositions 47010 to 47100. Later on, after the block 492 had reached itscapacity, another block 493 was created to store messages, e.g., fromchannel positions 47111 to 47300. Blocks 494 and 495 were subsequentlycreated to store additional messages. Afterwards, the streamlet 4104 wasclosed for additional message writes, and the streamlet 4105 was createdwith additional blocks for storing additional messages of the channelfoo.

In this example, the respective TTL's of blocks 492 and 493 had expired.The messages stored in these two blocks (from channel positions 47010 to47300) are no longer available for reading by subscribers of the channelfoo. The streamlet 4104 can discard these two expired blocks, e.g., byde-allocating the memory space for the blocks 492 and 493. The blocks494 or 495 could become expired and be discarded by the streamlet 4104,before the streamlet 4104 itself becomes invalid. Alternatively,streamlet 4104 itself could become invalid before the blocks 494 or 495become expired. In this way, a streamlet can hold one or more blocks ofmessages, or contain no block of messages, depending on respective TTLsof the streamlet and blocks, for example.

A streamlet, or a computing process running on a Q node in the messagingsystem 100, can create a block for storing messages of a channel byallocating a certain size of memory space from the Q node. The streamletcan receive, from an MX node in the messaging system 100, one message ata time and store the received message in the block. Alternatively, theMX node can assemble (i.e., buffer) a group of messages and send thegroup of messages to the Q node. The streamlet can allocate a block ofmemory space (from the Q node) and store the group of messages in theblock. The MX node can also perform compression on the group ofmessages, e.g., by removing a common header from each message.

One or more different message compression strategies (see TABLE 1) canbe employed in the system 100 to conserve message storage space andtransmit fewer bytes between end points. These strategies can be appliedboth internally, for communication between MX nodes to Q nodes, orexternally between MX nodes and publishers 522/subscribers 526, orbetween Q nodes and publishers 522/subscribers 526. The techniquesdescribed in TABLE 1 can compress and decompress data using algorithmssuch as DEFLATE (which uses a combination of LZ77 and Huffman coding),Lempel-Ziv, Huffman coding, or other methods for lossless codingincluding the dictionary based method described below with reference toFIG. 5

TABLE 1 Compression Strategy Description TCP connection This techniqueinvolves compressing data sent on a TCP connection and compressiondecompressing data received on the TCP connection. Because with thisapproach individual messages are not discernable, they cannot be storedin a compressed state. As a result, this approach can be used forpeer-to- peer compression (e.g., between MX and Q nodes or between MXand publishers/subscribers) but not for end-to-end compression (e.g.,between Q nodes and publishers/subscribers). Individual messageIndividual messages can be compressed into a fully self-contained formcompression that does not require use of an external dictionary fordecompression. For example, an MX node could receive a message from aclient, compress it, forward to the Q node, the Q node will store thecompressed message, then will forward it to one or more MX nodes wherethese messages are either decompressed and sent to thepublishers/subscribers, or forwarded publishers/subscribers incompressed form. This end-to- end compression is computationallybeneficial compared with the previous strategy because it avoids arepeated compression- decompression requirement each time the messagecrosses the boundary between communication endpoints. Inter-frame Thisapproach involves compressing two or more adjacent messages thatcompression are being sent on a connection as one which allows for ahigher compression ratio. Because the adjacent messages could be fordifferent logical channels, the ultimate receiver (e.g., a Q or MX nodeor a subscriber) may not be able to decompress an individual messagesince the receiver may not have access to the adjacent message (e.g.,the two or messages compressed together are for different channels). Forthis reason, this approach cannot be used for end-to-end compression anddoes not allow individual messages to be stored in a compressed state.Per-channel inter-frame This approach uses inter-frame compression butmaintains individual compression dictionaries either on a per-channel orper-group-of channels basis. For example, channels can be assigned todictionaries based on expectations of data similarity between groups ofchannels. At the WebSocket level this would entail introducing anadditional per-message header, which either instructs the endpoint tocreate a new empty dictionary under a given (e.g., randomly) assignedindex, or use an existing dictionary under a specified index. Thisdictionary selection can be done using a couple of additional bytes permessage, so the network overhead for this approach is negligible. Thiscompression strategy is interesting in the way that it can allow storageof compressed messages on Q nodes and transmission of the compressedmessages to subscribers without prior decompression. That is because allthe prior messages required to decompress a particular channel data areco-located with the other channel data and will get forwarded to theend-user in their due time.

FIG. 5 is a data flow diagram of an example method 500 for messagecompression in the messaging system 100. As described earlier, MX nodessuch as the MX node 530 and MX 540 shown in FIG. 5 can communicate witha channel manager (e.g., channel manager 214) in the messaging system100 via the internal network 218 (502). The MX nodes can alsocommunicate with Q nodes (e.g., Q node 208) in the messaging system 100via the internal network 218.

In FIG. 5, the MX node 530 receives publish requests from publishers 522through connections 520. By way of illustration, the MX node 530receives requests from the publishers 522 to publish messages M61, M62,M63, M64, and M65 to the channel named foo describer earlier inreference to FIG. 4A. The MX node 530 can arrange the messages based onrespective time of arrival, e.g., in a particular order of M62, M63,M64, M61, and M65, and stored the messages (in the particular order) ina streamlet of the channel foo's stream. In this example, the MX node530 receives a write grant from the channel manager 214 to store themessages starting at a position 49623 of the streamlet 4102 of thechannel foo's stream.

In some implementations, before storing the messages M62, M63, M64, M61,and M65, the MX node 530 encodes each message using a particulardictionary. For example, the MX Node 530 can access a dictionary datadatabase 510 a in the messaging system 100 and retrieve a dictionarythat can be used to encode the messages the MX node 530 receives.

A dictionary used to encode the messages for the channel foo can includeone or more patterns that are shared by some or all of messages for thechannel foo. For instance, a particular pattern can comprise one or moretext strings. By way of illustration, each message of the channel foocan be a movement of a player of a multi-player board game. Each messageincludes text strings of key/value pairs for keys in player identifier,direction, distance, and a message as illustrated in the followingexamples:

{player:1234;direction: east; distance:02;message:boo-yah!}

{player:6789;direction: south; distance:15;message:bye}

In this example, a pattern shared by messages of the channel foo is fourkey/value text strings, separated by semi-colon delimiters and enclosedby braces. Based on the pattern, the MX node 530 can encode a message ofthe channel foo by removing common fields or text strings shared withother messages of the channel foo such as the four keys, colons, andsemi-colons. For instance, the first example message above can beencoded as 1234, east, 02,boo-yah!. The second example message above canbe encoded as 6789, south, 15,bye. In this way, the MX node 530compresses each message by stripping out common fields shared amongmessages of the channel foo.

In various implementations, a particular pattern in a dictionary forencoding messages for a channel can be a pattern that comprises aparticular data type. For instance, each message of the channel foo canbe a temperature reading (e.g., of a digital thermometer) in adecimal-point number with 3 digits before the decimal point and 5 digitsafter the decimal point (e.g., 012.34567). A dictionary for encodingmessages of the channel foo can specify that a particular pattern forthe messages is a floating point number with 3 digits before the decimalpoint and 5 digits after the decimal point. The MX node 530 can encodeeach message by removing the decimal point, for example. Furthermore,the MX node 530 can replace (only) consecutive 0s (or consecutive 1s) bya leading 0 followed by a count of the consecutive 0s. For instance,00000010 can be encoded as 0610. In addition, the MX node 530 can encodeadjacent messages according to the floating point pattern. For instance,if the message M63 is 01110000, and the message M64 is 0011111. The MXnode 530 can encode the messages M63 and M64 as 0130615, with anindication that two messages have been combined.

As described above, a dictionary for a particular channel can comprisesone or more patterns that are shared by messages of the particularchannel. An MX node (or another software component of the messagingsystem 100) can inspect messages of the particular channel anddetermines a particular pattern that is shared by inspected messages.For instance, the MX node 530 can inspect messages for the channel foo,and determines that the messages comprise floating point numbers. The MXnode 530 can create a pattern in a floating point number, and store thepattern in a dictionary (specific to the channel foo) in the dictionarydata database 510 a.

The MX node 530 stores the encoded messages (552) in the streamlet 4102,starting at the position 46923. The MX node 530 can store the encodedmessages in the streamlet 4102 using the method for writing data to astreamlet described earlier in reference to FIG. 3A, for example. Asdescribed earlier in reference to FIG. 4C, the MX node 530 can alsostore the encoded messages in blocks of messages in the streamlet 4102wherein each block has a respective time-to-live. In this way, messagescan be decoded and compressed before being stored in a streamlet, andthus take less memory space in the streamlet as compared to if themessages are not decoded and compressed.

In FIG. 5, the MX node 540 receives a subscribe request for messages ofthe channel foo from a subscriber 526 through a connection 524. By wayof illustration, assume that at the current moment the channel foo'schannel stream has active streamlets starting from the streamlet 4102.The MX node 540 can request a read grant for all available messages inthe channel foo. Based on the request, the channel manager 214 providesthe MX node 540 a read grant to the streamlet 4102 (on the Q node 208).The MX node 540 can retrieve the encoded messages (533) in the streamlet4102 from the Q node 208, using the method for reading data from astreamlet described earlier in reference to FIG. 3B, for example. Asdescribed earlier, if the encoded messages are stored in the streamlet4102 in blocks of messages, the MX node 540 can retrieve the encodedmessages from blocks (closed or open) having respective time-to-livesthat have not expired.

The MX node 540 decodes each encoded message (e.g., M62, M63, M64, M61,or M65) based on the particular dictionary that was previously used toencoded the message. The MX node 540 can access the dictionary datadatabase 510 b for the particular dictionary, determine one or morepatterns or data fields that were previously used to encode themessages, and decode the messages based on the patterns or data fields.For instance, the MX node 540 can decoded compressed floating numbers touncompressed floating number, e.g., from 0130 to 011.10000 in thetemperature reading example above. As for another example, the MX node540 can decode the compressed message 6789, south, 15, bye toreconstruct an uncompressed message {player: 6789; direction: south;distance: 15;message: bye} for a subscriber in the board game exampleabove. The MX node 540 then provides the decoded messages (554), in thesame order as they are stored in the streamlet 4102, to the subscriber526 through the connection 524.

FIG. 6 is a flowchart of an example method for message compression in amessaging system. The method of FIG. 6 can be implemented by one or moreMX nodes in the messaging system 100, for example. The method begins byreceiving from a plurality of publisher clients a plurality of messages,each message being for a particular channel of a plurality of distinctchannels wherein each channel comprises an ordered plurality of messages(e.g., MX node 530, Step 602). The method encodes each message based ona particular dictionary (e.g., MX node 530, Step 604). The method storesencoded messages in one or more respective buffers according to theorder, each buffer having a respective time-to-live and residing on arespective node (e.g., MX node 530, Step 606). The method retrievesencoded messages for the particular channel from respective buffershaving time-to-lives that have not expired and according to the order(e.g., MX node 540, Step 608). The method decodes each retrieved messagebased on the particular dictionary (e.g., MX node 540, Step 610). Themethod sends the decoded messages to a plurality of subscriber clients(e.g., MX node 540, Step 612).

Embodiments of the subject matter and the operations described in thisspecification can be implemented in digital electronic circuitry, or incomputer software, firmware, or hardware, including the structuresdisclosed in this specification and their structural equivalents, or incombinations of one or more of them. Embodiments of the subject matterdescribed in this specification can be implemented as one or morecomputer programs, i.e., one or more modules of computer programinstructions, encoded on computer storage medium for execution by, or tocontrol the operation of, data processing apparatus. Alternatively or inaddition, the program instructions can be encoded on anartificially-generated propagated signal, e.g., a machine-generatedelectrical, optical, or electromagnetic signal, that is generated toencode information for transmission to suitable receiver apparatus forexecution by a data processing apparatus. A computer storage medium canbe, or be included in, a computer-readable storage device, acomputer-readable storage substrate, a random or serial access memoryarray or device, or a combination of one or more of them. Moreover,while a computer storage medium is not a propagated signal, a computerstorage medium can be a source or destination of computer programinstructions encoded in an artificially-generated propagated signal. Thecomputer storage medium can also be, or be included in, one or moreseparate physical components or media (e.g., multiple CDs, disks, orother storage devices).

The operations described in this specification can be implemented asoperations performed by a data processing apparatus on data stored onone or more computer-readable storage devices or received from othersources.

The term “data processing apparatus” encompasses all kinds of apparatus,devices, and machines for processing data, including by way of example aprogrammable processor, a computer, a system on a chip, or multipleones, or combinations, of the foregoing The apparatus can includespecial purpose logic circuitry, e.g., an FPGA (field programmable gatearray) or an ASIC (application-specific integrated circuit). Theapparatus can also include, in addition to hardware, code that createsan execution environment for the computer program in question, e.g.,code that constitutes processor firmware, a protocol stack, a databasemanagement system, an operating system, a cross-platform runtimeenvironment, a virtual machine, or a combination of one or more of them.The apparatus and execution environment can realize various differentcomputing model infrastructures, such as web services, distributedcomputing and grid computing infrastructures.

A computer program (also known as a program, software, softwareapplication, script, or code) can be written in any form of programminglanguage, including compiled or interpreted languages, declarative,procedural, or functional languages, and it can be deployed in any form,including as a stand-alone program or as a module, component,subroutine, object, or other unit suitable for use in a computingenvironment. A computer program may, but need not, correspond to a filein a file system. A program can be stored in a portion of a file thatholds other programs or data (e.g., one or more scripts stored in amarkup language resource), in a single file dedicated to the program inquestion, or in multiple coordinated files (e.g., files that store oneor more modules, sub-programs, or portions of code). A computer programcan be deployed to be executed on one computer or on multiple computersthat are located at one site or distributed across multiple sites andinterconnected by a communication network.

The processes and logic flows described in this specification can beperformed by one or more programmable processors executing one or morecomputer programs to perform actions by operating on input data andgenerating output. The processes and logic flows can also be performedby, and apparatus can also be implemented as, special purpose logiccircuitry, e.g., an FPGA (field programmable gate array) or an ASIC(application-specific integrated circuit).

Processors suitable for the execution of a computer program include, byway of example, both general and special purpose microprocessors, andany one or more processors of any kind of digital computer. Generally, aprocessor will receive instructions and data from a read-only memory ora random access memory or both. The essential elements of a computer area processor for performing actions in accordance with instructions andone or more memory devices for storing instructions and data. Generally,a computer will also include, or be operatively coupled to receive datafrom or transfer data to, or both, one or more mass storage devices forstoring data, e.g., magnetic, magneto-optical disks, or optical disks.However, a computer need not have such devices. Moreover, a computer canbe embedded in another device, e.g., a smart phone, a mobile audio orvideo player, a game console, a Global Positioning System (GPS)receiver, or a portable storage device (e.g., a universal serial bus(USB) flash drive), to name just a few. Devices suitable for storingcomputer program instructions and data include all forms of non-volatilememory, media and memory devices, including by way of examplesemiconductor memory devices, e.g., EPROM, EEPROM, and flash memorydevices; magnetic disks, e.g., internal hard disks or removable disks;magneto-optical disks; and CD-ROM and DVD-ROM disks. The processor andthe memory can be supplemented by, or incorporated in, special purposelogic circuitry.

To provide for interaction with a user, embodiments of the subjectmatter described in this specification can be implemented on a computerhaving a display device, e.g., a CRT (cathode ray tube) or LCD (liquidcrystal display) monitor, for displaying information to the user and akeyboard and a pointing device, e.g., a mouse or a trackball, by whichthe user can provide input to the computer. Other kinds of devices canbe used to provide for interaction with a user as well; for example,feedback provided to the user can be any form of sensory feedback, e.g.,visual feedback, auditory feedback, or tactile feedback; and input fromthe user can be received in any form, including acoustic, speech, ortactile input. In addition, a computer can interact with a user bysending resources to and receiving resources from a device that is usedby the user; for example, by sending web pages to a web browser on auser's client device in response to requests received from the webbrowser.

Embodiments of the subject matter described in this specification can beimplemented in a computing system that includes a back-end component,e.g., as a data server, or that includes a middleware component, e.g.,an application server, or that includes a front-end component, e.g., aclient computer having a graphical user interface or a Web browserthrough which a user can interact with an implementation of the subjectmatter described in this specification, or any combination of one ormore such back-end, middleware, or front-end components. The componentsof the system can be interconnected by any form or medium of digitaldata communication, e.g., a communication network. Examples ofcommunication networks include a local area network (“LAN”) and a widearea network (“WAN”), an inter-network (e.g., the Internet), andpeer-to-peer networks (e.g., ad hoc peer-to-peer networks).

The computing system can include clients and servers. A client andserver are generally remote from each other and typically interactthrough a communication network. The relationship of client and serverarises by virtue of computer programs running on the respectivecomputers and having a client-server relationship to each other. In someembodiments, a server transmits data (e.g., an HTML page) to a clientdevice (e.g., for purposes of displaying data to and receiving userinput from a user interacting with the client device). Data generated atthe client device (e.g., a result of the user interaction) can bereceived from the client device at the server.

A system of one or more computers can be configured to performparticular operations or actions by virtue of having software, firmware,hardware, or a combination of them installed on the system that inoperation causes or cause the system to perform the actions. One or morecomputer programs can be configured to perform particular operations oractions by virtue of including instructions that, when executed by dataprocessing apparatus, cause the apparatus to perform the actions.

While this specification contains many specific implementation details,these should not be construed as limitations on the scope of anyinventions or of what may be claimed, but rather as descriptions offeatures specific to particular embodiments of particular inventions.Certain features that are described in this specification in the contextof separate embodiments can also be implemented in combination in asingle embodiment. Conversely, various features that are described inthe context of a single embodiment can also be implemented in multipleembodiments separately or in any suitable subcombination. Moreover,although features may be described above as acting in certaincombinations and even initially claimed as such, one or more featuresfrom a claimed combination can in some cases be excised from thecombination, and the claimed combination may be directed to a subcombination or variation of a subcombination.

Similarly, while operations are depicted in the drawings in a particularorder, this should not be understood as requiring that such operationsbe performed in the particular order shown or in sequential order, orthat all illustrated operations be performed, to achieve desirableresults. In certain circumstances, multitasking and parallel processingmay be advantageous. Moreover, the separation of various systemcomponents in the embodiments described above should not be understoodas requiring such separation in all embodiments, and it should beunderstood that the described program components and systems cangenerally be integrated together in a single software product orpackaged into multiple software products.

Thus, particular embodiments of the subject matter have been described.Other embodiments are within the scope of the following claims. In somecases, the actions recited in the claims can be performed in a differentorder and still achieve desirable results. In addition, the processesdepicted in the accompanying figures do not necessarily require theparticular order shown, or sequential order, to achieve desirableresults. In certain implementations, multitasking and parallelprocessing may be advantageous.

What is claimed is:
 1. A computer-implemented method comprising:receiving from a plurality of publisher clients a plurality of messages,each message being for a channel of a plurality of channels wherein eachchannel comprises an ordered plurality of messages; encoding, by one ormore computer processors, each message for a first channel from theplurality of channels based on a dictionary for the first channel, thedictionary defining a pattern associated with each message for the firstchannel, wherein encoding each message for the first channel comprisescompressing the message for the first channel according to the pattern;storing encoded messages for the first channel in one or more respectivebuffers according to the order, each buffer having a respectivetime-to-live and residing on a respective node; retrieving encodedmessages for the first channel from respective buffers havingtime-to-lives that have not expired and according to the order;inspecting content of at least one retrieved encoded message;determining, by the one or more computer processors, from the content atleast one pattern used to encode each retrieved encoded message;decoding each retrieved encoded message based on the dictionary and thedetermined pattern, wherein decoding comprises decompressing eachmessage in the first channel according to the determined pattern; andsending the decoded messages to a plurality of subscriber clients. 2.The method of claim 1 wherein the pattern is shared by at least some ofthe plurality of messages for the first channel.
 3. The method of claim1 wherein the pattern comprises a text string.
 4. The method of claim 1wherein the pattern corresponds to a common data field shared by atleast some of the plurality of messages for the first channel.
 5. Themethod of claim 1 wherein the pattern comprises a data type.
 6. Themethod of claim 1 further comprising: adding the determined pattern tothe dictionary for the first channel.
 7. The method of claim 1 whereinstoring encoded messages for the first channel in one or more respectivebuffers comprises: sending a plurality of encoded messages to a firstbuffer on a first node, wherein the first node stores the plurality ofencoded messages in a first block of one or more blocks within the firstbuffer, wherein each block comprises a respective time-to-live.
 8. Themethod of claim 7 wherein retrieving encoded messages for the firstchannel comprises retrieving encoded messages from one or more of theone or more blocks within the first buffer having respectivetime-to-lives that have not expired.
 9. A system comprising: a memory;and one or more computer processors, operatively coupled with thememory, programmed to perform operations to: receive from a plurality ofpublisher clients a plurality of messages, each message being for achannel of a plurality of channels wherein each channel comprises anordered plurality of messages; encode each message for a first channelfrom the plurality of channels based on a dictionary for the firstchannel, the dictionary defining a pattern associated with each messagefor the first channel, wherein encoding each message for the firstchannel comprises compressing the message for the first channelaccording to the pattern; store encoded messages for the first channelin one or more respective buffers according to the order, each bufferhaving a respective time-to-live and residing on a respective node;retrieve encoded messages for the first channel from respective buffershaving time-to-lives that have not expired and according to the order;inspect content of at least one retrieved encoded message; determinefrom the content at least one pattern used to encode each retrievedencoded message; decode each retrieved encoded message based on thedictionary and the determined pattern, wherein decoding comprisesdecompressing each message in the first channel according to thedetermined pattern; and send the decoded messages to a plurality ofsubscriber clients.
 10. The system of claim 9 wherein the pattern isshared by at least some of the plurality of messages for the firstchannel.
 11. The system of claim 9 wherein the pattern comprises a textstring.
 12. The system of claim 9 wherein the pattern corresponds to acommon data field shared by at least some of the plurality of messagesfor the first channel.
 13. The system of claim 9 wherein the patterncomprises a data type.
 14. The system of claim 9, the operations furtherto: add the determined pattern to the dictionary for the first channel.15. The system of claim 9 wherein to store the encoded messages for thefirst channel in one or more respective buffers the operations are to:send a plurality of encoded messages to a first buffer on a first node,wherein the first node stores the plurality of encoded messages in afirst block of one or more blocks within the first buffer wherein eachblock comprises a respective time-to-live.
 16. The system of claim 15wherein to retrieve the encoded messages for the first channel, theoperations are to: retrieve the encoded messages from one or more of theone or more blocks within the first buffer having respectivetime-to-lives that have not expired.
 17. A non-transitorymachine-readable medium having instructions stored thereon that, whenexecuted by one or more computer processors, cause the one or morecomputer processors: receive from a plurality of publisher clients aplurality of messages, each message being for a channel of a pluralityof channels wherein each channel comprises an ordered plurality ofmessages; encode each message for a first channel from the plurality ofchannels based on a dictionary for the first channel, the dictionarydefining a pattern associated with each message for the first channel,wherein encoding each message for the first channel comprisescompressing the message for the first channel according to the pattern;store encoded messages for the first channel in one or more respectivebuffers according to the order, each buffer having a respectivetime-to-live and residing on a respective node; retrieve encodedmessages for the first channel from respective buffers havingtime-to-lives that have not expired and according to the order; inspectcontent of at least one retrieved encoded message; determine from thecontent at least one pattern used to encode each retrieved encodedmessage; decode each retrieved encoded message based on the dictionaryand the determined pattern, wherein decoding comprises decompressingeach message in the first channel according to the determined pattern;and send the decoded messages to a plurality of subscriber clients. 18.The non-transitory machine-readable medium of claim 17 wherein thepattern is shared at least some of the plurality of messages for thefirst channel.
 19. The non-transitory machine-readable medium of claim17 wherein the pattern comprises a text string.
 20. The non-transitorymachine-readable medium of claim 17 wherein the pattern corresponds to acommon data field shared by at least some of the plurality of messagesfor the first channel.
 21. The non-transitory machine-readable medium ofclaim 17 wherein the pattern comprises a data type.
 22. Thenon-transitory machine-readable medium of claim 17 wherein the one ormore computer processors are further to: add the determined pattern tothe dictionary for the first channel.
 23. The non-transitorymachine-readable medium of claim 17 wherein to store the encodedmessages for the first channel in one or more respective buffers the oneor more computer processors are to: send a plurality of encoded messagesto a first buffer on a first node, wherein the first node stores theplurality of encoded messages in a first block of one or more blockswithin the first buffer, wherein each block comprises a respectivetime-to-live.
 24. The non-transitory machine-readable medium of claim 23wherein to retrieve the encoded messages for the first channel, the oneor more computer processors are to: retrieve the encoded messages fromone or more of the one or more blocks within the first buffer havingrespective time-to-lives that have not expired.